Senate passes amendment to Integrity bill

The Trinidad and Tobago Senate on Tuesday passed the Integrity In Public Life (Amendment) Bill 2009 after a controversial clause was removed from the legislation.

That provision would have required anyone filing a complaint against persons in public life such as a Government ministers to provide a statutory declaration containing the person's name, address and telephone number as well as the exact nature of the complaint.

The opposition and some independent Senators had objected to that section of the legislation.

Attorney General John Jeremie told reporters the government agreed to make the change in order to get the support needed to pass the bill.

"I think (it) was a major source of concern in the national community... there was some other consequential changes which were required to be made to meet some specific concerns of the various members on the Independent benches and we did that," Jeremie said.

At the present time there is no Integrity Commission in the country. The one appointed by President Max Richards last year resigned within days of taking office and Richards has so far failed to make new appointments.